Updated 11:53 pm, Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Victor DaVila lives next door to Maple Street House, on Maple Street, in Bridgeport, Conn. Nov. 21st, 2012. He said the clients at the halfway house are good neighbors. One of the facility's buildings is seen here, behind DaVila.
Photo: Ned Gerard

BRIDGEPORT-- For the second time in two months police say a dangerous felon escaped from the Maple Street halfway house, just weeks after an inmate walked out and allegedly killed a University of Bridgeport student.

The news shocked the district's councilwoman and a neighborhood activist who are now demanding that more be done to ensure residents are safe and secure.

"I am concerned about the safety of the neighborhood," said Councilwoman Lydia Martinez, who had not been aware of the escapes until Wednesday. "I intend to talk to the mayor about it and see what we can put into place."

Martinez said she has been concerned about the Maple Street House for some time and had talked to the staff and the administrators, but the recent escapes puts urgency to new security procedures.

East Side activist and former mayoral candidate Charles Coviello said his stepson had lived in the halfway house and he only had a positive opinion of the facility.

However, he said two escapes in two months -- and an alleged murder -- has him re-evaluating his opinion.

"They are a large facility, maybe too large for the staff they have there," he said. "I think something has to be done to ensure proper monitoring is going on."

Elaine Ficarra, spokeswoman for Mayor Bill Finch, said she was unaware of the escapes from the Maple Street House. Ficarra said she would contact Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph Gaudett, whose officers arrested the slaying suspect, but neither Ficarra nor Gaudett returned calls Wednesday night.

On Sept. 18, 21-year-old Courtney Burden had escaped from the halfway house when University of Bridgeport graduate student Moin Hassan was shot and killed in a Fairfield Avenue market, police said.

Burden had been serving the remainder of a sentence for armed robbery when police said he simply walked away from Maple Street House. He is now awaiting trial in Hassan's murder.

Police said on Oct. 9, 28-year-old Jose Hernandez, who was serving the remainder of a 19-month sentence for carrying a pistol without a permit, also walked away from the halfway house. He was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree escape.

Executive Director Joseph Riker said Wednesday he is not familiar with the Burden and Hernandez cases.

"We've been running that program (Maple Street House) for well over 20 years quite successfully and largely without incident," he said.

The halfway house is licensed by the DOC and is under the supervision of the DOC's Bridgeport parole office. The DOC could pull Connecticut Renaissance's license.

Maple Street House is actually three buildings, two three-story wood frame houses and a two-story masonry building in the center, all surrounded by a chain-link fence on Maple Street between Brooks and Pembroke streets. It's an area of numerous boarded-up buildings and signs of criminal activity. Across the street is the large parking lot of a truck driving school.

According to the DOC, the halfway house has 61 beds available for male offenders 18 and over. The DOC said the halfway house does not accept offenders with a history of arson or aggressive or deviant sexual behavior.

On Wednesday afternoon, several young men in white T-shirts were playing basketball in the small parking lot behind the halfway house.

"I know it's there, but I don't think it's a big deal," said Victor Davila, 21, who lives next door. "They (the residents) walk in front of my house and sometimes they make noise at night, but it's not that bad."

Other neighborhood residents, who wouldn't give their names, said they also had no problem with the halfway house, which in most cases had been there longer than they.

Police said by design there is no one in the halfway house to prevent residents from leaving, and they have the freedom to leave in order to find work. However, they are supposed to return at the end of the day.

In Hernandez's case, police said a supervisor checked Hernandez's room and found he had packed his belongings and left. They said he later called the halfway house and told them he was on his way to New York to make some money.

In the Burden case, according to police, an employee of Layla's Market, on Fairfield Avenue, was in the rear cooler section of the Fairfield Avenue store when he heard a gunshot.

He came out to the front of the store to see 22-year-old Hassan lying on the floor behind the counter bleeding from a gunshot wound in his abdomen. A man wearing a hooded sweatshirt was running out the door, police said. Hassan died a short time later at Bridgeport Hospital.

Police said they later got a tip that the two men responsible for Hassan's murder had tried to rob a market on Maplewood Avenue. Detectives viewed the surveillance video from that market and they said they were able to identify Burden as one of the attempted robbers.

Hassan, who is originally from Bangladesh, was majoring in electrical engineering at the university.